TV Reviews: Playhouse Presents – The Dog Thrower

Playhouse presents returned on Thursday with their third series and what a return it was. The series began with “The Dog Thrower” which showcases the talent of Matthew Perry, Kimberley Nixon and Tim Key.

The a Dog Thrower begins with a man, Tim Key, taking his dog on a walk to the park just like every day. Once he gets to the park he sees another man, Matthew Perry, throwing his dog in the air and catching it. This man who is throwing his dog appears to be getting a lot of attention for it so Tim Key’s character decidedly to throw his dog in the air as well, both men get a lot of attention for it. Tim key’s character gains a girlfriend, Kimberley Nixon, out if it.

One day a journalist takes a picture of what the men are doing and photoshops it so that it looks like dog abuse and posts it online. The story gets posted in newspapers and the men get ostracised by the town they stay in. In an interview Matthew Perry’s character blames Tim Key’s character for the whole thing and they both find themselves ostracised again. The end of this episode shows them bravely walking back in to the centre of the town and they are about to throw their dogs in the air again, but Tim Key’s dog ends up attacking him.

An explosive come back for Playhouse presents, not only was it a strong, controversial topic but it also contained a lot of tasteful, British humour and as always with Playhouse Presents the acting was absolutely mind blowing. Matthew Perry really stood out in this episode, there were a lot of moments where the episode relied on silence, and let me tell you there was not a boring moment in the entire episode. The whole “you can say it all with a look” statement was absolutely proved by Perry in the scene where the journalist turns up at his door with the photoshoped picture and he tries to hide his dog, he didn’t utter a word but showed how screwed the character was. His screen presence was more than enough to keep the scene going and was so effective.

Tim Key and Kimberley Nixon also showed great acting, they shared a scene together where Nixon cuts her hand and starts to freak out but it looks like she is freaking out because Key was at her door, long story short he throws the dog in to her arms to retrieve her phone where she has pictures of him throwing his dog. This scene was perfectly timed and beautifully acted, once again there was little to none dialogue, which is what I think gave this half hour piece it’s charm. Another element that helped the film along was the quirky soundtrack by Belle and Sebastian that worked perfectly with the comedic timings of the actors.

All in all I think this was a brilliant and quirky episode for Playhouse Presents to start their third series with and an incredible UK comedy debut for Matthew Perry to be a part of.

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Jodie Paterson

I’m Jodie Paterson, a 23 year old Edinburgh based blogger who is passionate about blogging, writing, social media and photography. Currently studying Events Management at University, blogging still remains a large hobby of mine.